Pop. Politics. Sex. So On.

October 7, 2008

Palin goes palling

You know how I always say that playing the "imagine if the other side did this" game is a cheap rhetorical device, only to go ahead and endorse it anyway. At this point, I should probably just admit that while it may be cheap, it's usually pretty revealing. Here's David Talbot on Sarah Palin's anti-American BFFs.

Imagine the uproar if Michelle Obama was revealed to have joined a black nationalist party whose founder preached armed secession from the United States and who enlisted the government of Iran in his cause? The Obama campaign would probably not have survived such an explosive revelation. Particularly if Barack Obama himself was videotaped giving the anti-American secessionists his wholehearted support just months ago.

Nice sleight of hand, John, but the relevant question isn't which group is worse but which candidate has a genuinely close relationship with a despicable group that may actually reflect on her policies, judgment and character.

But Obama's relationship with Ayers and Dohrn does reflect on his policies, judgment and character. He was perfectly comfortable hanging out in the same milieu as leftist radicals. The only defense is that it may have reflected nothing more than political opportunism. But the same defense could be made of Palin. Given all that, of course it's relevant which group is worse.

Except that 1) he wasn't nearly as close with them as Palin was with the AIP and 2) they were, by that time, *former* leftist radicals, whom he associated with only in their current capacity as non-radical leftists with significant standing in the community. The Annenberg Foundation is hardly an extremist "milieu" the way the AIP is.